Golf club construction has evolved over the years to a highly specialized art wherein specialty materials such as titanium, beryllium and graphite are now commonly used in the construction of golf clubs. The use of graphite for golf shaft construction has become an instantaneous success. Graphite, known for its high strength and low weight, permits faster club head speeds which result in longer distance drives for the golfer.
To allow for optimum success, golf clubs can be built so as to be custom tailored to the individual golfer. With a conventional steel shaft golf club, a golfsmith typically employs a workbench having specialized vises to build or customize the club. In many golf shops, this work is performed in front of the customer. One of the problems associated with the machining of these specialty material shafts, particularly graphite, is the amount of specialty material dust, particularly graphite dust that is produced during the building or customizing process. For instance, when a club is tailored to meet the height requirements of an individual, the shaft of the club may need to be cut to fit the particular individual. This cutting process results in a fine dust that is distributed throughout the room and may have possible carcinogenic or other health side effects that the individual and customers are being subjected to. For these reasons, I have improved upon known prior art workbenches to provide the golfsmith with a self-contained workbench to permit continued golf club manufacturing while eliminating the problem of harmful dust fibers, e.g. graphite fiber dust, in the workplace.
For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 3,470,679 disclosed a workbench having a filtered laminar flow of clean air through a filtration system to absorb contaminated air. The platform has a recessed grate for drawing air from around items placed upon the platform.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,518,814 disclosed a workbench having a top working surface and an enclosure which defines an air passageway for movement of air upward through a filter and onto the work area.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,686,836 discloses a workbench having recirculated air drawn across the top of a workbench.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,333,745 discloses a workbench filtering station having HEPA-filters.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,582,225 discloses a simplified workbench that operates via the use of a conventional wet/dry vacuum cleaner for drawing air from a modified workbench.
A common problem with all of the known prior art is that the workbenches are not specifically designed for a golfsmith. To this end, the use of an enclosure over the bench can make it difficult to work on a long club. In addition, most grated workbenches are designed for removal of particulate dust, such as saw dust, and do not possess the air volume necessary to draw the extremely fine fibrous dust, e.g. graphite dust, from the working area. Thus, what is needed is a dustfree workbench having a specific design for removal of graphite fiber dust, or equivalent fine fibrous dust produced from alternative specialty shaft materials, while remaining aesthetically pleasing for use before the golfsmiths' customers.